Painkiller Hell & Damnation (Video Game Review)

Painkiller Hell & Damnation is the newest release from developer The Farm 51 and publisher Nordic Games. The new title is actually a remake of the original title Painkiller that released back in 2004, rebuilt on Unreal Engine 3. The game packs challenging scenarios and classic gameplay into a pretty package that definitely stands out as one of the best looking shooters around. You won't find your modern weapons, health regeneration, upgradeable firearms and kill-streaks in Painkiller Hell & Damnation, but the game does add some great new multiplayer modes including competitive variants like Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. Painkiller Hell & Damnation is a first-person shooter game for old-school fans, so the timid and weak stomached need not apply!

In Painkiller Hell & Damnation, you play as the protagonist, Daniel Garner, who has been sent into Purgatory to do battle with the menacing demons and ghouls that inhabit the supernatural landscape. Daniel has been given the tools of destruction that will get the job done, and he hopes to somehow find his way out of this hellish world and once again reunite with his wife, Catherine. As with many classic shooters, the storyline in Painkiller Hell & Damnation isn't its strongest quality, but it does a good job at pointing you in the right direction and allows you to learn more about the interesting protagonist, how he ended up in Purgatory and what drives him to keep fighting for a way out. One of the cool new features allows you to bring a friend along for the ride and enjoy the storyline of the game's campaign in cooperative play as well.

Purgatory is one hell of a strange world, so obviously, you won't be carrying just any weapons into combat to take down the bizarre creatures that inhabit the dark world. You'll be equipped with a stake launching firearm known as the Painkiller, a saw blade firing automatic known as the Soulcatcher, shoguns and more, and you'll need every tool in your arsenal when you go from facing your possessed wooden puppets to fighting giant monstrosities at the end of levels. Of course, all of the weapons in Painkiller Hell & Damnation carry over into multiplayer where you'll find a fun new Survival Mode where up to eight players will work together in order to outlast ever increasingly difficult waves of enemies, and you'll also find plenty of player versus player matchtypes such as Duel and Deathmatch. Playing Painkiller Hell & Damnation is a lot of fun for fans of the FPS genre, and plenty of ways to play ensures the game has near infinite replayability.

Painkiller has never looked better than it does while running on the Unreal Engine 3 in Painkiller Hell & Damnation, and it's never been more fun to blast your way through a bunch of butt-ugly monsters. With 14 levels of campaign action that take you through a variety of locations while doing battle with some of the strangest creatures you've seen in any game, Painkiller Hell & Damnation takes you on a wild, unrelenting ride through Purgatory, but this is one trip to Hell that is a whole lot of fun. If you're a fan of shooters or just love action-packed games that immediately throw you into plenty of intense gunfights, pick up your copy of Painkiller Hell & Damnation today!

Painkiller Hell & Damnation is now available exclusively for PC and can be purchased in standard edition for $19.99 and in Collector's Edition for $29.99, and the game is scheduled to release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on January 22, 2012. Painkiller Hell & Damnation is rated M by the ESRB for Blood and Gore & Violence. For more information on the game, check out the official Painkiller Hell & Damnation website.